isn't he?'
'You can talk to me – it'll just be between us,' Signy promised.
But the guard just grinned ruefully and refused to talk.
'And the halfmen must trade with Outside to get this stuff. Do Outside give them human flesh as well?'
'Must do. But I suppose there are other things. The tanks, for instance. They give them womb tanks, so they breed new versions of themselves.'
'Do they really? To make a brand new creature – but they must be very clever, then!'
'Easy! The technology does it all for you. All you have to do is spit in it, or get a few hairs of the creature you want to add, that sort of thing. The technology extracts the DNA for you. Even a halfman can spit.'
They finished their food. The grey rain cloud had gone, although it looked as though there were more on the way. Everything was fresh, clean and wet… and they were trapped two hundred feet above ground, stuck in a chill wind.
They played games, twenty questions and I-Spy. They told jokes. But the cold wind was slowly chilling their bones. Even in her out-of-town luxury, Signy felt that her bones were slowly turning to stone.
About halfway through the afternoon they heard the sound of vehicles for the first time in hours. The guard got to his feet, making creaking noises as he did so.
'At last!' he groaned. The easy posting had turned into something of a torment. He leaned over the railings and peered through the bushes. Signy already had her binoculars out.
'Let's hope they've had enough of the rain. At least you'll get to see some halfmen, even if it's only dead ones.'
'Dead's no use,' said Signy sadly. All the fun and danger had gone out of her life since she became important. She stood up to try and get a better view.
A Land-Rover came bursting through the bushes and it was suddenly obvious that something was wrong. The car was going far too fast, bouncing and veering madly from side to side. From further back, more cars appeared, three of them, charging after the first one.
'What's going on?' The guard pulled out his own binoculars and had them to his eyes just as Signy cried out, 'It's a halfman – a halfman at the wheel!'
'They can't drive,' insisted the guard scornfully, but even as he said it he got his vision onto the hairy arms, the paws pressed against the steering wheel. The creature had no proper hands, which perhaps accounted for its terrible driving.
The guard dropped his bins and took up his gun. He was scared to spray the vehicle in case there were humans inside. Halfmen were well known for their love of taking hostages. But he managed to fire a burst of bullets at the tires. The car swerved – the way it was being driven it didn't seem possible that it would carry on missing things for long anyway – and slewed sideways into the ruins of a house.
There was a quiet second; then halfmen began to pour out of the car. Big ones, small ones. They could hear them yelping, barking and shouting. It must have been full to the brim with them. At last, Signy got her first good look.
They were squat, hairy creatures, these ones – all the same type, more or less. Their heads were so heavy they sank down onto their chests. You could tell at a glance how powerful their necks and jaws were; these animals could crunch your thigh bone like a sugar stick. They were straight in the back, high in the shoulder and had small, powerful, squat rumps. They tumbled out of the car yowling and yipping and gibbering. Out of the wind, Signy was sure she could make out a few words.
'Over there, no, not that way… you…'
'Can they speak much?' she asked the guard.
'Only to lie,' growled the guard. He had his rifle up at his shoulder. Now, he released a violent hail of bullets down into the clustered group of beasts, before they had a chance to separate and spread out.
Half a dozen went down under the spray. Signy got a look through her binoculars at a big one, pausing to look up over its shoulder at her and the guard. Its face was a picture of hatred, malice and fear.
'But…'
'What?'
'It looks human!'
'Not half human enough,' said the guard, releasing another hail of bullets. The halfman below danced -avoiding them or taking them, she couldn't say. By now the pursuing cars were drawing close, and firing came from other directions as well. Almost all were down, but the big dog Signy had seen was still on his feet, trying to gather the group together, snatching at the little ones. Another hail of bullets cracked out; the creature ducked its head, shoved the few it had gathered in front of it, sank to all fours and ran. On all fours, the creatures lost any semblance they had to humans. The turn of speed they took on was horrifying, as if they had engines within them. Maybe they did.
Then they were gone, diving away in between the circle of four-wheelers that had been forming around them. The cars squealed and spun in the mud and roared off after them.
It was over. Like so much violence, it took only a moment in time. The wind whipped away the sound of the cars racing away over the bumpy ground. The hunt – or massacre, whatever it was – was going to finish out of sight.
'Filthy bastards,' growled the guard. 'Filthy beasts…' Like most humans, the mere thought of the halfmen filled him with hatred. Signy looked at his face and saw… hatred, malice, fear. She turned away to follow the scene with her binoculars, but it had all vanished.
'Do you think they'll get them all?' she asked, scanning the bushes. She thought she could see movement where the cars might be, a long way off. But the speed at which the beasts moved was frightening. They could be anywhere already. The guard made a noise behind her.
'What?' said Signy. 'What did you say?' And as she spoke, she heard another noise – a breath, a gasp behind her, and felt at the same time a light pressure on her waist. She spun round. The halfman she had seen below a couple of minutes before was sitting three feet away from her, staring her in the face.
'Guard!' she screamed, and using an old trick, pointed behind the creature's shoulder as she reached for her hand gun. But her gun was gone.
'Lost something? Hey ho. Hey ho,' crooned the creature. The pistol dangled loosely from its monster's claw. The halfman shook his head and pointed down to the ground.
'Gone for a dive,' it said. Its claws and jaws were red with blood.
21
Signy
It was going to take it about one second for it to tear me to pieces. I flinched and I expected to be dead before I'd finished flinching. But there I still was, clutching the side railings. The halfman slobbered and grinned.
'But…'
'I climbed,' the creature growled. I thought, gods! We were a hundred feet above the ground.
It was dressed in a grubby wax jacket. It was sitting with its arms resting on its knees. It was more than half hyena, but maybe a splash of leopard was in it. All the time as I stared at it, its face was working, twitching.
I thought, kill me now! What are you waiting for? But it just sat there watching me, swinging my gun lazily from its finger. I glanced down. I could have fallen from fear. I could see the guard's body tiny as a broken toy on the ground below.
'Gone for a dive,' it said again. I snatched at the gun, but it just tossed it over its shoulder. I watched it tumble and turn in the air. It clattered on the metal struts and was gone into the grass.
'You're dead,' I told it. I was getting ready to fight, but this thing was designed to kill. 'They're bound to get you.'
'But not before I've got you, eh?' wheezed the halfman. The sounds of shouting came over from behind; it glanced backwards, over its shoulder.
'You're dead,' I said again. I'd never been so scared. I wanted it to be scared, too. 'You know it.'
